The Wine Society Rhone 2006 offer started today. At last, Kirsty and I were able order some Rostaing Cote Rotie! Six bottles of La Landonne! Mission accomplished(ish). It’s some of best Syrah coming out of the Northern Rhone . Whether we get any of the allocation of this awesome brew remains to be seen. It will be dramatically over subscribed.
Let’s put this into context here. Guigal makes concentrated, very oaky, incredibly expensive (and delicious) Cote Roties. They’re just not my cup of tea though. Eminent, though controversial, wine critic Robert Parker loves them. He usually gives them tip top marks in his reviews. Blockbuster wines sums them up well. Imagine if Lamborghini built a bulldozer and your halfway to understanding most of Guigal's premium range from the 'roasted slope'.
Rostaing’s wines are a different animal to Guigal’s. There is some use of new oak, definitely. Concentrated, elegeant and minerally, Rostaing's top Cote Rotie’s are rarely (if ever) very approachable in their youth. The man himself says that his wines are “Not for tourists". With 15 years or so for the wines to be drinking well, I would probably agree with that statement.
Let's hope we get the wine.
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